Understanding User Behavior in Mobile and Desktop

What drives people to click your ad? There are some factors that determine people to click your ad. The layout of your publisher, the user interface, the intrusiveness of your ad, etc. The thing you should understand is about the user behavior.

In understanding user behavior is not as simple as it is. You should differentiate the users in the mobile and the desktop to determine your treatment and maximize your engagement. The question will be: what do they actually click on, explore, download, buy and avoid on their mobile devices, versus doing the same actions on a desktop.

1. Mobile User Activity During Morning and Evenings

Mobile user activity usually peaks during the morning (6 am to 9 am), because when they wake up, the first thing they look for is their smartphone. They browse information to keep update with the issue, such like social media and news portal. While desktop users are active during working hours (9 am to 6 pm). So when you optimize your ad, you should consider the time of user activity.

2. Desktop Users Search Heavy Content

Mobile users actually read light content, they just look for some update. While in desktop, users want to satisfy the curiosity and deep reading. They look for specific information, and they feel comfort to read it in a desktop. But if you have the same desktop treatment in mobile version, it will give you high bounce rate.

3. Content Is King for Both Platforms

Nowadays good contents always have the good engagement to the users. It happens not only in mobile but also on the desktop. It is effective if we use relevant content to the users. it is increasingly working its way to the forefront of all digital marketing strategies, as it becomes a crucial element that reaps big rewards.

4. Consider Time Spent on Page

IBM Insights mentions that mobile users are impatient if your target audience is mostly young. According to KISSmetrics, 40% of people will leave a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. That’s why some website apply Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to optimize the user engagement. In a desktop, users feel more comfort open tabs, leave them idle and come back to them.

5. The Usage Time of Mobile App Is Longer Than Mobile Web

Mobile users actually love the light app! They can browse something they like (especially for e-commerce) faster and lighter. It is different if they browse it to the mobile site. SmartInsights data shows us that 89 of user time spent on media is through mobile apps, while only 11% through mobile web. The brand also can maximize the feature of the app to satisfy the users.

source: smartinsights

6. Mobile Users Are Younger

With over 85% of Generation Y owning smartphones, means they will spend more time on their smartphone. While people in the desktop are a bit older, because they are not really in touch on their smartphone.

7. Mobile Users Are More Open to Location Sharing

It is easier to share location by smartphone. Some of the chat platforms, or food apps, or even e-commerce enable you to send location easily. The thing is different if we use a desktop, the user journey in sending location is longer than mobile.

8. Research on Mobile and Purchase on Desktop

Because of the lightness of the mobile, people browse their information on mobile. Even they give some bookmarks to their favorite items. Users actually prefer research on mobile and complete their transaction on the desktop.